WWE Stock Report: The celebrities and part-timers are taking over WrestleMania again

Some places do power rankings. Here at Cageside, we do a stock report.

In this weekly series, we identify three Superstars (or groups of Superstars) who are on their way up, and three that are moving in the opposite direction. After a busy week that included the fallout from Elimination Chamber, a lot of fortunes were changed.

With that in mind, let’s see whose stock has decreased the most this week:

Stock Down #3: Los Lotharios

It’s tough for a repackaged act to get over on the road to WrestleMania because WWE prefers to go all-in on established stars, celebrities, and legends. Humberto and Angel did split two matches against the New Day Big E & Kofi Kingston earlier this month, but they lost the rubber match on last night’s (Feb. 25) SmackDown. A backstage segment then indicated that E and Kingston are moving on to deal with Sheamus and Ridge Holland. Maybe Los Lotharios will hang around in the picture with those teams, but it’s more likely that they will be dumped into the Andre Battle Royal.

Stock Down #2: Street Profits

There are lots of teams fighting over tag team gold on Raw right now, but the Street Profits are not one of them. Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins did the job for the champs this week (Feb. 21) in a non-title match, putting over Alpha Academy ahead of their upcoming title defense against RK-Bro and Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens. This isn’t the spot they want to be in as WrestleMania approaches.

Stock Down #1: Nikki A.S.H.

Nikki A.S.H. has been Riptide’d and pinned by Rhea Ripley nearly every week for the last month. Even after Ripley disposed of her former partner at Elimination Chamber, WWE went back to the well one more time on Raw. Both women need to find something more interesting to do at this point. Nikki is the one in a precarious position since she’s losing all the falls.

Now let’s see whose stock has increased the most this week:

Stock Up #3: Finn Balor

Balor has been a non-factor on Raw in 2022, but he’s back in time for WrestleMania 38. He first helped Tommaso Ciampa win a tag team match on Raw. Finn then stepped up to Damian Priest when the United States champion made an open challenge to any world championship caliber wrestler. Balor gets a title shot next week, at a time where the United States title might be the top men’s belt on Raw for a while.

Stock Up #2: Sami Zayn, The Miz, The Mysterios

It’s WrestleMania season, and that means it’s time to for Vince McMahon to bring in as many part-timers, celebrities, and legends as possible to fill out the card. Edge is already back in the fold, and there are rumors that Steve Austin, Pat McAfee, and even Shane Vince McMahon might have matches at WrestleMania 38.

This week’s television shows featured the returns of Logan Paul and Johnny Knoxville to WWE, where they are lined up for WrestleMania matches against The Mysterios and Sami Zayn, respectively. It’s not a lock that these celebrity encounters will work out well for The Mysterios and Zayn, but plenty of other wrestlers on the WWE roster would love to trade places with Sami, Rey, and Dominik right now. They have a guaranteed spot on the WrestleMania card in matches that won’t be treated as afterthoughts.

Stock Up #1: Roman Reigns & Brock Lesnar

Reigns and Lesnar will compete in a title unification match at WrestleMania 38. WWE is marketing it as the biggest WrestleMania match of all time. Regardless of whether you believe that hype or not, WWE is doing everything they can to make it sound believable. That includes Brock Lesnar wiping out an entire team of skid mark security during a contract signing after Reigns accurately boasted about his complete dominance over the WWE brand.

There you have it, Cagesiders. Whose stock do you think has changed the most this week?